Seeds of Honesty – The Way We See It

An elderly business president had a difficult time choosing a successor to take over his business, so he decided to invite all of the promising followers to a meeting. He said “I’m getting ready to retire and need to choose the next leader for our organization. As part of my decision, I’m going to give each of you a very special seed. I want you to plant it, water it, and nurture it as you would do to our business throughout the next year. Then I want to see what you’ve grown from the seed I’ve given you, and I will select your next leader.”

Eventually the time came for the team to present their plants to the president. The room was full of a variety of beautiful plants in different shapes and sizes, except for one man, whose pot was empty. The president took notice of his empty pot immediately and asked him what happened. The man was very embarrassed, but told the president that no matter how much he watered or fertilized his plant, it never did grow.

The president congratulated the man with the empty pot on becoming the new leader. The room became silent as the president told the group, “I gave you all boiled seeds that would not grow. Rather than being truthful admitting your failure to grow the seed I gave you, many of you acted deceitfully substituting another seed for the one I gave you.”

Here’s the way we see it: Albert Einstein said it best, “Whoever is careless with the truth in small matters cannot be trusted with important matters.” David Meerman Scott talked recently about Creating a Company we Love and we’re sticklers when it comes to listening to clients and giving honest straight-forward feedback. If you’re looking for a straight-forward printing and business communications strategist or partner you can trust, we look forward to hearing from you.